Gold Spot Price Open: $1,229
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,233
Change in Gold Spot Price: +$4
Silver Spot Price Open: $16.56
Silver Spot Price Close: $17.12
Change in Silver Spot Price: +$0.56
Gold and silver spot values began the day on Tuesday in impressive fashion, but saw early gains reduced as the day wore on. When all was said and done, gold managed to gain about 4 dollars while silver added more than 50 cents. Platinum and palladium both also saw early day gains whittled away by the time markets closed.
Crude Oil Continues On Its Decline
For yet another day, crude oil spot values were beaten down and, though they did not move much, finished the day hovering near a 6 year low. This prompted US equities to take a sizable hit and spend most of the day in the red. In fact, the first week or more of this year has been quite tumultuous for stocks as they have done little else apart from conceding value. So long as subdued oil prices continue to beat down the value of equities, gold and silver very well may continue to make gains like we have seen the last few days.
Speaking to members of the media, a UAE OPEC official commented that the oil cartel will refrain from reducing its overall output. Thanks to falling crude oil prices, many experts feel as though the only way to uplift the price of crude oil is to reduce the amount of it that is making its way to the market. So far, however, we see that energy companies and cartels like OPEC are quite honestly not willing to reduce the amount of oil they produce. It will be interesting to see if this same type of stance persists as we move further into 2015, or if heads of oil companies will take action to drive the price back up.
US Dollar Performing Well, Not Affecting Precious Metals All That Much
For the last 2 or 3 weeks, the US Dollar has been making somewhat consistent gains against rivals. Against the Euro especially, the USD has made massive advances and is looking stronger by the day. Today, the USD Index, which measures the greenback against a number of rival currencies, spent most of the day on the rise and finished in a healthy position, near multi-year highs.
Typically, a stronger US Dollar translates into weaker raw commodities. Recently, however, the uptick on the part of the Dollar has not had too much of an impact on the prices of gold and silver. Though it is widely believed that, without a stronger US Dollar, gold and silver would be performing even better at present, most investors are not scoffing at the recent progress made by precious metals directly in the face of a stronger Dollar.
Wrap-Up
As we look ahead to the middle day of this week and the last few days, it is clear to see that there is plenty for investors to mull over and discuss. Just this week, we will see investors continue to focus on equity indexes as well as the value of the US Dollar.
Just today, a report from the UK claimed that December saw consumer price inflation fall by .5% year on year from November. Experts are blaming falling crude oil prices for the lower deflation reading and are also convinced that these same, depressed crude oil prices will be the reason we do not see interest rate hikes anytime soon. With that said, however, there is no way of telling what the Federal Reserve plans on doing as we head further into this New Year.
